Basic Questions About Death, Part 2

Recap of Previous Questions: How Death Entered and What Happens at Death

0:01 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, March 28, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now those of you who were with us this morning are aware that the ministry of the Word of God tonight is fundamentally a continuation of what we began to undertake in the morning hour. However, circumstances have led me to the conclusion that it would be both right and timely

0:34 to address this very basic subject of the Bible's answers to the basic questions concerning death. And we are not the first, nor will we be the last, to raise those basic questions concerning death. We are not the first, nor will we be the last, to raise those basic questions concerning death. We are not the first, nor will we be the last, to raise those basic questions concerning death.

0:58 For the old patriarch Job, in one chapter, within a matter of just several verses, raised some of those very fundamental, haunting questions concerning death. In Job 14.10 we read, But man dies and is laid low, yea, man expires, and where is he?

1:28 Man dies. Man expires. Where is he? Verse 14 of the same chapter, If a man die, shall he live again?

1:42 And these questions cannot help but press in upon any who allow themselves to reflect upon the mystery, upon the finality, upon the unnaturalness, of this that we call death. And as I introduce the subject this morning, I set before you my threefold purpose, and I want to repeat just the headings of that threefold purpose. It is my purpose in taking up this subject to impart instruction

2:24 that would lead to our own preparation for death. Each of us has a purpose. Each of us has a vested interest in this subject, for it is appointed unto every one of us to die. And after this comes judgment.

2:42 But my second goal is to impart instruction that those of you who are prepared to die may properly and accurately answer the children's questions. For inevitably your children will ask questions with respect to death, particularly when death intrudes into circles that touch people with whom they have talked and laughed and interacted in their own experience. And then my third purpose is to impart instruction that will be used as a means of consolation

3:23 and exhortation as we seek to minister one to another. Then we took up the first. Second, the first two of five questions that constitute the most basic questions with respect to death. Question 1, how did death enter the world and become a part of universal human experience.

3:52 And we saw from the Scriptures, Genesis 2, 16 and 17 the facts of Genesis 3 as interpreted by Paul when Saul died. In verse 3, it says, and set forth in Romans 5 and verse 12 that death entered the world and has become a part of universal human experience because sin through the one man Adam has entered the world and sin is our universal state and condition then we took up the second question what precisely

4:30 happens in the experience of death according to the scriptures when the scriptures say and he died what do the scriptures describe when they speak of death and I set the answer before you in terms of three propositions human beings are composed of two separate entities called a body and a soul and theony weten when the body storing it living is a photograph that einfiles through theох немнож threatenings that God which lead someone to exist and be alive is still made and a soul or a spirit and though the term soul and spirit have differing uses in differing

5:09 contexts when we speak of the constitution of man they are used interchangeably and i am using them in that way we have a material and a non-material entity a body and a soul or a spirit and jesus makes direct reference to that reality in matthew 10 and verse 28 when he warns his disciples do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who is able

5:48 to destroy both soul and body in gehenna or hell the second proposition the soul and body obviously united throughout the entirety of our life and human experience here on earth none of us has had any existence apart from this body soul Union we have not known what it is to be disembodied spirits we have not known what it is to be dispirited bodies and then the third proposition is this that death is the

6:31 real unnatural but temporary separation of the soul and of the body the clear teaching of James 2 26 for as the body apart from the spirit is dead and we looked at the two beautiful examples of this experience first in the case of Stephen acts 7 and in the case of our Lord in Luke 23 46 now tonight we take up three remaining basic questions concerning

Question 3: What Follows Immediately Upon Death? (Body's Fate)

7:10 death and the Bible's answers to those questions having considered how death entered the world what precisely happens in the experience of death The third and most natural question is this, what follows immediately upon the experience of death? If the essence of dying is this unnatural, real, but temporary separation of the soul and the body, what follows immediately upon that experience of death?

7:53 Well, let us consider the immediate state or condition of the body. And to answer that question, we need no special light from God's book of special revelation, for the body lies before us, observable. The body is before us as an entity that can be touched in its dead state. And by observation, we know.

8:25 We know that the dead body begins immediately to decompose. And scripture speaks directly to this issue in John chapter 11, when our Lord Jesus came to the place where Lazarus, part of that dearly loved family in Bethany, is buried. And the sisters are concerned that our Lord has delayed his coming. And they said, Lord, by now he has already begun to smash.

8:55 Well, the decomposition of the body has set in. And we know that the immediate state of the body is one of decomposition, taking it eventually within the orbit of the ancient curse pronounced by God in Genesis 3 and verse 19, when speaking to Adam after his sin, he said, Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt. Return. And whether through burial or in the case of death at sea, bodies buried into the swelling, heaving waves of the sea,

9:39 in some cultures ordinarily and almost universally cremated, in others embalmed, but the basic principle of the word of God, observable to the human eye and to the physical senses, is that the immediate state of the body is one that will lead it ultimately to fulfill the ancient curse which God pronounced in Genesis 3 and verse 19. But then when we ask the question what follows immediately upon the experience of death with respect to the soul,

Question 3: What Follows Immediately Upon Death? (Soul's Fate - Unprepared)

10:22 that invisible, entity, the soul, or the spirit, for this we are utterly and totally reliant upon this book, special revelation. And this book does not leave us with unanswered questions with respect to the immediate state of the soul. This book informs us that some die prepared, for death, some die unprepared for death,

11:00 and the immediate state of the soul is determined by that preparedness or unpreparedness for the experience of death. Turn please to a passage we did not have time to look at this morning, but I made reference to it, Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16.

11:25 Luke chapter 16. Remember now the question we are asking, what follows immediately upon the experience of death, the separation of the soul and of the body? The immediate state of the body, it is making its way into the orbit of the ancient curse pronounced by God in Genesis 3, 19. But what of the immediate state of the soul?

11:57 But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul?

12:00 But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul?

12:04 But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul?

12:08 But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul?

12:12 But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul? But what of the immediate state of the soul?

12:16 every day. And a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yea, even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died. The beggar experienced

12:41 this very real, abnormal, unnatural, but temporary separation of the body and of the soul. It says nothing concerning the burial of his body, but we are told that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom, which obviously has reference to his soul or his body. to his spirit but now with reference to the rich man we read and the rich man also died he had the

13:24 same experience as the beggar there was this separation of the soul from the spirit and the state of his body is explicitly referred to and was buried he underwent ordinary decent burial but immediately with no intervening time with no suspension in his experience we read in verse 23 and in hades or hell he he he

14:06 lifted up his eyes being in torments he died he was buried in hell he lifted up his eyes in torment his soul went immediately into a place of conscious torment and suffering furthermore when we turn to Acts chapter 1 we have a very clear reference with respect to Judas

14:46 which points in the same direction of awesome reality you remember that after Judas under the torments of an accusing conscience ran back to those who paid him 30 pieces of silver to betray Christ and gives back the money the money he went out and hung himself and here in acts 1 in verse 18 we read now this man referring to judas obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out and it became known to all the dwellers

15:31 at jerusalem in so much that in their language the field was called akeldama that is the field of blood the chief priest said this is blood money we cannot use it for common ordinary temple purposes so they bought a field in which to bury the dead and it could well be that its first inhabitant was the mangled body of judas who went out and committed suicide we know what happened when judas died as to his body but what about his soul

16:08 notice verse 24 and 5 as they are now praying that god would guide them in the choice of the replacement for judas and they prayed and said thou lord who knowest the hearts of all men show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away that he might go to his own place and this

16:48 phrase ton topon ton ideon in the Greek those who have given themselves to the lifelong study of that ancient language remind us that it is technical language and is used even in secular Greek to speak of the souls of those that go to a place of torment and of woe the same Judas who hung himself and apparently the instrument whether the rope or cord by which he hung himself broke and whether he was impaled upon some object

17:27 that split him open it's a gory account we are told that with reference to his soul he went to his own place that soul was not annihilated that soul was not put into a state of suspension or sleep it went to its own place then when we turn to Jews verses 6 and 7 we see again the truth that some souls or spirits go immediately and consciously

18:11 into a place and state of torment and suffering in the company of other unredeemed lost souls for here Jude is describing the state of spirit beings who have no bodies and with reference to these who have sinned against God we read and the angels that kept not their own principality but left their proper habitation he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness

18:49 unto the judgment of the great day even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them having in like manner with these who have sinned against God we read and the angels that kept not their own principality but left their own principality but left their own given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the punishment of eternal fire and so the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah along with these disembodied or these non-corporeal spirits these angels who do not have bodies

19:31 yet in their present state they have a common lot of suffering they have a common companionship lying under the immediate conscious judgment of God some souls go immediately and consciously into a place and state of torment and suffering and the company of others unredeemed lost souls are set forth as sacred beings who have sinned against God to天quet and to the end of eternal life. the souls go immediately and consciously into a place and state of torment and suffering and the company of other unredeemed lost souls. unredeemed or lost spirits. But blessed be God, there are others who, like Lazarus,

Question 3: What Follows Immediately Upon Death? (Soul's Fate - Prepared)

20:12 some souls go immediately and consciously into the presence of God, of Christ, and all the other redeemed spirits. And here we turn to Luke 23 for one of the clearest demonstrations of that fact,

20:34 that immediately following the experience of death, the souls of those prepared to die go immediately and consciously into the presence of God, of Christ, and of all the other redeemed spirits. Here we have the incident commonly described as the dying thief or the conversion of the, of of the thief upon the cross. And we read in verse 42 that one of the thieves cried out and said, Jesus, remember me when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom.

21:19 He apparently is looking forward with the eye of faith to the consummate manifestation of the Kingdom of Christ at the end of the age. And he says, Jesus in that day remember me but how does our Lord respond and he said unto him in one of those magisterial sayings in which our Lord precedes his words with this amen verily to underscore

21:52 the veracity and the importance of his word verily I say unto thee today thou shalt be with me in paradise this very day I will die and enter what is here called paradise and in that place you too shall be found with me while we might go into a discussion as to the Persian backgrounds of the term paradise etc it would be utterly

22:32 unfruitful and non edifying for we know where our Lord Jesus went because we read in this very context in verse 46 father into thy hands I commend my spirit and for our Lord Jesus

22:54 there was an entrance into the immediate presence of his father in his departed human spirit and he says to this thief today you shall be with me in paradise and then in Philippians chapter 1 that well-known portion where Paul speaks of his sanctified dilemma 거든ist

23:37 he sees father strange present these giving a everything what I animals are waiting for until the hours against them to commune with Him my highest joy, to serve Him my great delight, but to die is gain. Because all that I now know of my attachment to Christ will be heightened when my spirit leaves this body and goes immediately into the presence of Christ.

24:18 And that that is indeed His thought is brought out in the subsequent words. But if to live in the flesh, if this shall bring fruit from my work, then what I shall choose I know not. I'm in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is very far better. We can't give a literal rendering of the original. It's bad English. It's very much more better.

24:53 There is a piling up of the superlatives and the comparatives. He said, I'm pressed between these two desires, having the desire to depart. And the word depart simply means to enter through the door of death into the immediate conscious presence of Christ. How could it be more desirable to go from a present state of conscious communion?

25:23 Into a state of limbo, into a state of unconscious soul sleep, where there would be no conscious soul ravishing communion with Christ. This one who says that my great ambition in chapter three is to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings and in the power of His resurrection. This one who says for to me to live is Christ. How could it be far better to be cut off?

25:53 From all conscious communion with Christ. It's nonsense. The doctrine of soul sleep had no place in the thought and aspirations of the great apostle. He knew that the moment death occurred for him, the moment there was this rending of soul and body, that his spirit would make its way immediately.

26:22 And consciously into the presence of God and of Christ and all the other redeemed spirits for he says, I have this desire to depart and to be with Christ for it is very far better yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake. He was not at all. In a state of confusion with respect to this third vital question, what follows immediately upon the experience of death?

27:03 He knew that the moment the guillotine or the, I should say that the executioner's broad acts, the guillotine awaited some centuries later, but the moment the broad acts of the executioner would sever his head from his neck, that his spirit would wing its way into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said that would be far better.

27:35 Similar words are used in second Corinthians chapter five, where though the focus in the immediate part of the chapter is Paul's longing for the eternal state and the resurrected body. He realizes he was made. He's to be a body soul entity. And therefore the consummate focal point of his longings, not to be a disembodied glorified spirit, but to be a glorified saint in body and in soul.

28:09 But nonetheless, though that is the ACME, the epitome, the focal point of his longing, he says, in verse six of second Corinthians five. Being there for always of good courage in knowing. knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

28:49 What a beautiful way to state the answer of Scripture to the question, what follows immediately the experience of death for the one prepared to die? He goes home.

29:08 He goes home. Home is where Christ is. And he goes into the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. But not only the immediate presence of Christ, but I've stated, all of the other spirits who are at home with him.

29:31 For in Hebrews 12 in verse 23, where the writer to the Hebrews is underscoring the great privileges of new covenant believers and all of the things to which we come as believers. He says in verse 23, we come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. We hold a mystic communion right now with the spirits of just men made perfect

30:12 in the immediate presence of Christ. And the moment we die, our spirits join theirs and form part of the company, of the just men whose spirits are made perfect. No suggestion of any intermediate state of further purgation and purification. The notion of purgatory is not found in one syllable of the Bible.

30:49 No notion of a state of limbo or soul sleep in answer to the question, what happens immediately upon the experience of death. With reference to the body, common observation answers the question and thereby fulfills the ancient curse of Genesis 319. With reference to the soul, the soul's unprepared to die, like the rich man described by our Lord in Luke 19, as the body is buried, the soul in torment in hell,

31:34 there is the conscious existence in a place of torment and of woe. But for those prepared to die, they go immediately into the presence of Christ, fully conscious and into the presence of all, all of the redeemed spirits. In one of the sermons of A.W. Tozer

32:04 that I've listened to many times, and I may have shared this incident, but it bears repetition because I've listened to the sermon at least four or five times, and each time I hear the incident, I either shout or weep. The young preacher was by the bedside of an old, mature saint who was struggling with her remaining moment. It was evident that the moment of her death was drawing near. Her breathing was becoming more labored.

32:38 It was evident that she would soon be leaving. The young preacher, inexperienced by the bedside of the dying, was struggling to find the right thing to say to this seasoned old saint. And sensing something of his awkwardness and his inexperience, she said to him, young man, stop troubling yourself. In a very short time, I'm just going to cross over the river, and my father owns the land on both sides.

33:15 You see, she had no question what would happen immediately upon her death. She said, I've been dwelling with my father on this side of the river. In a few minutes, I'm going to die. I'll be with my father on the other side.

33:34 Of the river and surely John Bunyan had it straight did he not when in his immortal allegory he describes Christian and hopeful entering the river of death and in that description he says and with that Christian broke out with a loud voice. Oh I see him again and he tells me when thou passes through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. Then they both took courage and the enemy was after that is still as a stone until they were gone over the river.

34:14 Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow. Thus. They. They got over now upon the bank of the river on the other side they saw the two shining men again who there waited for them wherefore being come up out of the river they saluted them saying we are ministering spirit sent forth to minister to those that shall be heirs of salvation.

34:45 Thus they went along toward the gate. Now you must note that the city stood upon a mighty hill but the pilgrims went up. To that hill with ease because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms also they had left their mortal garments behind them in the river for though they went in with them they came out without them bunion recognizes you see that in his allegory he must set forth the truth yes the body and the soul are severed.

35:24 One from the other as one passes through the river of death and then he describes them without their mortal garments as now making their way up the hill to the city with much agility and speed though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher than the clouds they therefore went up through the region of the air sweetly talking as they went being comforted because they safely got up.

35:54 God over the river and had such glorious companions to attend them and then he describes taking phrases from various parts of scripture that they are in the presence of Christ Christ the lamb in the presence of God the king of glory and that they shall be with him awaiting the day when the sound of the trumpet shall usher in the return of the Lord Jesus and the general resurrection and general resurrection.

36:24 But you see bunion as he read his bible had no notion that these two pilgrims would cross the river and there be anesthetized by the two shining ones until the day of resurrection they are fully conscious as they enter into the immediate presence of God of Christ of the lamb and all of the redeemed souls that have passed over the river. Before.

Summary of Immediate Post-Death States

36:54 So in summary the answer to the third question from the scriptures is clear since death is the separation of the soul and the body what follows immediately upon that separation the body is left to the results of the ancient curse the soul or the spirit goes immediately and consciously into one of two places. Either that.

37:25 Of Christ and God in his redeemed ones or the place of torment and woe with fellow lost spirits now we come to the fourth basic question concerning death is one of Job's questions if a man die shall he live again and obviously the question focuses upon the state of his body for it is that.

Question 4: What is the Ultimate Fate of Body and Soul? (Reunion and Judgment)

37:56 Which in its inanimate and deathly ghastly state is placed into the earth and so our fourth question is this what is the ultimate fate of the body and the soul we've considered what is the immediate fate of the soul and the body upon the experience of death now our question goes further what is the ultimate fate of the body upon the experience of death. of the body, and of the soul. And for the answer to this question, we are absolutely dependent on divine revelation

38:38 for a certain answer. And that answer has two parts. Number one, the bodies and souls of all men will be reunited at the coming of Christ in preparation for judgment. The bodies and souls of all men will be reunited at the coming of Christ in preparation for the judgment.

39:08 Turn please to John chapter 5 for what may well be the clearest statement of this fact from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ.

39:20 In this chapter, our Lord has been saying that no one can truly honor God the Father who does not give even a little bit of equal honor to God the Son. There is no true religious devotion to God if that devotion is not to God revealed in Jesus Christ. And one of the ways in which God has demonstrated the honor He places upon His Son is by giving Him this unique position as the universal judge of all men in the last day. Amen.

39:58 So we read in verse 25 of John chapter 5 these words. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son to have life in Himself. Here is the experience of spiritual resurrection through the life-giving power of the Word of Christ.

40:39 But then he goes on to say, and he gave authority to Him to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice and shall hear His voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the...

41:08 Please turn this cassette over to continue the message.

41:14 They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. Could language be more clear, more simple, that every body, that has been placed in the tombs, all who have died shall be raised by the voice of the Son of Man. The hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice and hearing that voice it will call them

41:57 from the state of death and make their bodies to live again. And they shall come forth in that resurrection life in preparation for a universal general judgment. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. Acts 24 in verse 15, the Apostle Paul makes it plain that this, this reality is no novelty.

42:38 Acts chapter 24 and verse 15, it was part of the religious conviction of the ancient nation of Israel having hope toward God which these also themselves look for that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unrighteousness. the bodies of all men will be reunited to their souls.

43:15 And this will be accomplished at the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Having come, Matthew 25 and verse 31, having returned in His glory and in His power, we read in verse 31 and following of Matthew 25, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations.

43:57 And we know from these other passages they will not be gathered as disembodied spirits. They will be gathered as, Resurrected men, both the just and the unjust, all in the graves shall hear His voice. In answer to the question, what is the ultimate fate of the body and the soul, the Bible's answer is clear. The bodies and souls of all men will be reunited at the coming of Christ in preparation for the judgment.

44:33 Amen.

Question 4: What is the Ultimate Fate of Body and Soul? (Eternal Destinies)

44:35 The answer is this. From the judgment, all men in their reunited bodies and souls will be ushered into the eternal joys of heaven or cast into the frightening, eternal torments of hell. From the judgment, all men in their reunited bodies and souls reconstituted what as human beings God intended we should be, body, soul, entities,

45:18 and as such we shall be ushered into the eternal joys of heaven or cast into the horrible, frightening, eternal torments of hell. Remaining in the Matthew 25 passage, see how this clear division is unequivocally asserted by our Lord. Some are ushered into the joys of heaven forever. Verse 34, Then shall the king say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,

46:03 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation, of the world. Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom. Now is that an idle invitation? No, for verse 46 says, And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous shall go away, the verb understood, into eternal life.

46:37 The one who says, Come, ye blessed, will secure that they shall go into the blessedness prepared for them. Hence the apostle can say in 1 Thessalonians 4.17, In overcoming ignorance with respect to those who have died in Christ, after giving the instruction of what will happen, he says, And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Or in the language of Peter, 2 Peter 3.13,

47:17 We, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And to have your soul ravished with some of the most graphic pictures of what we presently cannot fathom, I commend to you a prayerful, reflective reading of Revelation, 21 and 22, a condition in which there will be no more sighing, nor tears, nor crying, nor sorrow, nor death. Death shall be no more. No need of the sun or of the moon.

47:59 No need of night. Eternal day. God himself shall be with them and be their God. They shall follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth.

48:14 From the judgment, some will be ushered, body and soul, into heaven forever.

48:24 Some shall be cast into the eternal torments of hell. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 10.28, Be not afraid of those who kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body, in hell. And I ask you to turn now to Revelation 20, a passage that you parents ought again and again to turn to with your children,

49:00 for it sets out in graphic language the judgment of the last day in terms of God's throne being a great, pure, a white throne. The awesome God who sits upon it from whose face the earth, and the heavens flee away. And as a result of that judgment, whoever is not found written in the book of life, we read in verse 15, and if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

49:43 And John is not moved by the risen Christ to add anything more about what being cast into the lake of fire will involve, because a few verses before, he has already given a graphic description of what the lake of fire will be. Look at verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day. Amen.

50:23 And night forever and forever. And unless someone is so utterly blasphemous as to charge God with deliberately attempting to deceive us,

50:41 these words mean exactly what they say. They shall be tormented. Conscious agony and suffering of soul and of body. Day.

51:01 That is no respite. No hour. No time in any day and any night. But that they will experience the most exquisite, intense torment of soul and body.

51:21 And that, not for a period of time to be remedial,

51:28 but forever and ever.

51:36 Previously in chapter 14, similar language was used. In verse 11, The smoke of their torment goeth up forever and ever. How could language be more clear? And they have no rest day and night.

51:59 The smoke of their torment.

52:05 Once the fire goes out, there's no more smoke. Once the torment would cease, how could there be smoke of their torment? If there is no torment to create the smoke, it's the smoke of the torment that goes up forever. Forever and ever, because the torment is unending.

52:25 They have no rest day nor night. What is the ultimate fate of the body and the soul? The bodies and souls of all men will be reunited at the coming of Christ in preparation for the judgment. Secondly, from the judgment, all men, women, boys and girls, in their reunited bodies and souls, will be ushered in.

52:55 Ushered into the eternal joys of heaven or cast into the torments of hell forever. I want every person here, I can't force you, but I urge you, look at the hands that you now possess. Look at them. Fold them and feel.

53:20 I did this in my study. Touch your ears. Be conscious of your physical constitution. Think of the most intense pain you've ever known.

53:38 Think of the most intense pain you've ever known. Think of the most intense pain you've ever known. Think of the most intense pain you've ever known. Think of the most intense agony that you've experienced when your nerves have been the conduit of searing, scorching pain.

53:54 Now add to that the most intense grief you've ever known. When your heart has been crushed and broken to the point where your grief led you not merely to cry or to sob, but to wail. My friend, that experience is but a token of what you will know for eternity if you're unprepared to die. In which you sit in that pew, in that soul with which you receive the words

54:38 and the mind and the spirit responds in fear or dread or faith or skepticism, all that you are sitting here tonight will, after a few more breaths, be found in that place of unspeakable glory, in the presence of God, and of the Lamb, and all His redeemed one. Or in that place of unspeakable torment and woe forever. I've not embellished the language of Scripture with human descriptions.

Question 5: What Makes the Difference in Eternal Destiny?

55:17 I've sought simply to give you the Bible's end. And I therefore close with the fifth and final question. Having asked and then answered from the Scripture, how did death enter the world? What actually occurs at death?

55:38 What follows immediately upon the experience of death? What is the ultimate fate of the body and the soul or the spirit? Now this final question. What makes the difference as to where death will immediately take your soul and where your soul and body will be consigned forever?

56:07 What makes the difference? What makes the difference as to where death will immediately take your soul? For upon death, all of our bodies will share the same experience. They will all, as Pastor Jeff read from 1 Corinthians 15, they will be sown in dishonor.

56:30 Barring those alive at the coming of Christ, these bodies will disintegrate in a tomb. The earth, some other form will go back to dust. But what makes the difference as to where death will immediately take the soul? Will it be carried into the presence of Christ, which is far better?

56:57 Or will it join the rich man in the torments of hell and in the company of fallen angels? And then when Jesus calls all of our bodies out of the tomb to be reunited, to our spirits, and as body-soul entities, we are ushered into heaven and the presence of God and of the Lamb, or consigned to outer darkness, to the lake of fire, to the conscious state of the torment of body and soul forever? What makes the difference? What a question.

57:41 God help you if you fall asleep and let your mind wander. When wrestling with such a question. And as I wrestled with how to answer it, the Bible answers it from so many different angles. I said, well, I think the simplest way to answer it and in a way that I trust the Spirit of God will make it stick, is to take our reference point from Christ Himself.

58:07 And here I ask you to turn to John 11. For at the end of the day, the answer to the question, what makes the difference is this, the difference is your relationship to Jesus Christ Himself. And notice how He was conscious of this when speaking in a setting of death. He was by the tomb of Lazarus.

58:34 He had not yet raised Lazarus from the dead. And we read in John 11, verse 25, these very pregnant women, the words Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die.

59:09 We heard this morning about paradoxical language in our adult class. Here is paradoxical language. And here is contradiction, but only that. But what I want you to see in this text is this, that the thing that makes the difference as to where death will immediately take your soul, and where your soul and body will be forever, has to do with your relationship to Jesus Christ.

59:41 For He said, I in My person am the resurrection and the life. And your faith relationship to Me, determines your ultimate relationship to death and the world to come. This is why John could say in Revelation 14, 13, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, united to Christ. Blessed are such dead who will enter the presence of Christ at death and into heaven and all the glories and privileges and unspeakable wonders.

The Difference: Right Standing in Christ's Righteousness

60:19 of what will be involved in the new heavens and the new earth. At the day of judgment, I give you three simple answers. And they all relate to Christ. Number one, those who have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ.

60:41 Those who have a renewed nature from God by the Spirit of Christ. And those who have sustained a persevering attachment to Christ in spite of any and all opposition. Who will enter the presence of Christ at death and the presence of God and of the Lamb in the new heavens and the new earth at the coming of Christ and subsequent to the judgment? Firstly, those who have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ.

61:19 Romans 8 and verse 1 states it so simply, so succinctly and beautifully. There is therefore now. It's as though the day of judgment has come and gone and the sentence is already settled. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ.

61:50 The sentence has come forth. No condemnation to every sinner who has a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ. And notice how that righteousness has been provided. Verse 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.

62:29 In whose flesh? In Christ's flesh. And when He hung upon that cross bearing vicariously the curse due to our sins, He was so fully removing it that by being united to Him the full virtue of His perfect life and His substitutionary death is made ours. And therefore we can face death and judgment without dread because we know we have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ.

63:08 Look at John 5, 24 where our Lord states this in language a bit different, but it's the same blessed truth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears My word and believes Him that sent Me, hath eternal life and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life. Oh yes, we shall go to the day of judgment, but we will not come into judgment for our sin in Adam, for the sin of our nature with which we were conceived in our mother's womb,

63:53 for the sins of our mother, the sins of our infancy, the sins of our toddlerhood, the sins of our youth, the sins of our prepubescent folly, the sins of our teenage years, the sins of our young adult years, the sins before, the sins after we came to faith. We shall come into condemnation for no sin whatsoever. For He bore the punishment in His own body upon the cross. And our admission into heaven will be an act of pure and unstained and undiluted righteousness on the part of God.

The Difference: Renewed Nature by Christ's Spirit

64:37 For we will have the very righteousness of God in Christ. Those who have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ, they will enter the presence of Christ at death and the new heavens and the new earth following the judgment. But it is only those who have a renewed nature from God by the Spirit of Christ. You see, God never gives the former without giving the second as well.

65:18 You see, God never credits to any believing sinner the righteousness of Christ without at the same time renewing the nature of the sinner by the Spirit of Christ. That's why Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, John 3, 3 and John 3, 5. And in the pivotal text in Romans chapter 8, since we saw in the first verse no condemnation here and now, nor in the day of judgment to those who are in Christ, notice what he says further in this eighth chapter of Romans.

66:02 Our natural disposition, our native disposition of heart and mind is one of enmity against God and His law. Verse 7, The mind of the flesh is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

66:27 If we do not please God, how could we ever be taken into the presence of God? If we are in the flesh, that is, if we have a disposition that is set against God and His law, not only guilty in our legal standing, but vile and polluted and rebellious. In our actual disposition of heart we cannot please God, but look at verse 9, but you are not in the flesh. You are not in that state and mindset and frame of spirit.

67:03 You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwells in you, and if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Who will enter the presence of Christ at death and the glories of heaven subsequent to the judgment? Not only those who have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ, but those who have a renewed nature from God by the spirit of Christ.

67:36 And I ask you sitting here, do you have that? You say, oh yes, I believe in Christ, I trust in what He did in His perfect life, in His death upon the cross, no condemnation. My friend, I ask you, do you have a renewed nature from God by the spirit of Christ, and do you know that from one whose dominant disposition was self-will and rebellion against God, you know what it is to deny yourself to take up the cross and have a disposition that says, I'm prepared to do the will of God if it kills me. I'm prepared to do the will of God

68:19 no matter what it costs me. Not that I may earn the favor of God, but because God, in favor, has given me a new heart and placed His spirit within me and written His law upon my heart. Read through the book of the Revelation and you find this dual description of the redeemed. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

68:49 That's graphic imagery of possessing a righteousness from God in Christ. But then they are described as those who do His commandments as well as keep the faith of Jesus. It is such who are ushered into His presence. And one of my great fears for not a few who sit regularly in Trinity Church is that you know the will of God, you flat out refuse to do it.

69:24 You know the will about your personal life. You know the will of God about your marital life. You know the will about your work life. You refuse to do it.

69:41 My friend, give up your profession or give up your indifference to the revealed will of God. For he that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Hereby do we know that we know him and we keep his commandments. And I ask you to read some of those beautiful heaven passages.

The Difference: Persevering Attachment to Christ

70:15 And they underscore this truth again and again. But then thirdly, those who will enter the presence of Christ at death are those who have not only a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ, who have a renewed nature from God by the Spirit of Christ, but those who've sustained a persevering attachment to Christ in spite of all opposition. You remember Jesus' words? In the interest of time, I won't turn you there, but I quote them from Matthew 10, 32 and following.

70:55 Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. And then as though he knows the area where we are most tempted to that denial, he says, think not that I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send or cast peace but a sword.

71:22 I came to set a man against his father, the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

71:40 And he that doth not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Who will enter heaven? Those who've sustained a persevering attachment to Christ in spite of all opposition, confessing that attachment to him if it means the severance and the opposition of the dearest human relationships. That's what Christ said.

72:07 The only ones He'll confess before His Father as belonging to Him, to whom He will say, Welcome, my own, are such people. Adhering to His ways, read Revelation 2 and 3 and one of the common denominators of all seven letters to the different seven churches is they close with a promise to Him that overcometh. And the promises go all the way from the positive to the negative and the negative back to the positive. To Him that overcometh, He shall not be hurt at the second death, which is hell.

72:43 To Him that overcometh, I will give to Him a right to eat of the tree of life. To Him that overcometh, He shall be a pillar in the house of my God. To Him that overcometh, To Him that overcometh, what is that but an adherence to Christ and to His ways no matter what the opposition and an attachment that involves love to His person that the world will not be allowed to dampen. Because iniquity shall abound, we read in Matthew 24, the love of the many shall wax cold, but he that endureth to the end

73:24 the same shall be saved. Dear people, if you think you're going to find an easy way to heaven, an easier way than old John Bunyan set out in his Pilgrim's Progress, you're deluding yourself. For John Bunyan had soaked his soul in his Bible in those years in a Bedford jail. And while in his Pilgrim's Progress he has some of the most beautiful teaching on the great reality that the sinner's acceptance before God is grounded in the work of Christ alone, it is only when he beholds the cross and the sepulcher

74:09 that his burden rolls down and into a tomb and is seen no more. And he exclaimed, blessed cross, blessed sepulcher, blessed rather be the one who there did die for me. But you see, though Bunyan would stand here tonight and say in answer to the question, what makes the difference as to where death will immediately take you and where soul and body will be found forever, that it is only those who have a right standing before God in the righteousness of Christ, Bunyan would go on to say with us in the language of the Bible,

74:52 unless you have a renewed nature from God by the Spirit of Christ, you are a mere talkative. You see, talkative knew all the doctrine of imputed righteousness. He knew the doctrine of original sin. He knew the doctrine of justification.

75:09 The problem was, he never had his heart changed. And certainly Bunyan knew of no way to the celestial city other than that of persevering attachment to Christ in spite of all opposition. He doesn't describe Mr. Facing both ways as a man who crosses the river and enters heaven.

75:35 He has characters who have all the appearance of being Christians, but somewhere along the line something became more dear than Jesus Christ. And he has no such person entering heaven. In fact, he closes his discourse with the words, and I saw that there was a way to hell from the very gate. Dear people, God has graciously, kindly, sobered us in these days

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

76:16 by allowing death to break in to the ranks of our church family. I have sought this day, I have labored, I have given soul and mind and body, I've given myself to set before you as best I know how, according to my present light and capacity, the Bible's answer to these five basic questions about death. What are you going to do with it? Will you come through another season where God in providence has sobered you and overlaid upon his providence

76:59 his word as precious to you, only to harden your heart and stiffen your neck? May God grant that you will not be such a fool. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today is the day of salvation.

77:24 Precious children, young people, teenagers, adults, gray hairs, dear people, are you ready to die? Are you ready to die and go to judgment? May God grant that that great and final day will reveal that in the inscrutable wisdom of God the home going of our sister Sally was the means God used to point our minds to the sober issues we've contemplated today. That those of you who are out of Christ will take no rest until you know you're in him.

78:06 And those of us who are in him will have these blessings and these basic perspectives more firmly etched in our consciousness, more firmly embedded in the tables of our hearts, that we will not be those who have dim and indistinct views of what death is and what death can and cannot do to us. That it may be said of us as a monument of the grace of God, they die well. They die. Let us pray.

78:47 Father, how thankful we are that amidst all that is so foreboding and mysterious concerning death, that you have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and that our Lord Jesus has borne the curse of the law, has tasted death for all of his people. We thank you that he conquered death by his death and by his resurrection. And we thank you that his resurrection is the firstfruits.

79:30 And as surely as he rose to the life that he now enjoys at your right hand, we too shall rise in union with him. As we see the seeds of death in these mortal bodies, how we thank you that we know because we are united to Christ, that we are marked for immortality, that we are his purchased possession. O God, for those who do not have a right standing before you in the righteousness of Christ, who do not have a new nature from you by the Spirit of Christ, who are not clinging to Christ

80:13 at any cost, O God, will you not bring about that blessed divorce from self and sin, and their own righteousness, and going their own way? And will you not marry their souls to Christ in faith and repentance? And O God, for your dear people, may they be so strengthened in their faith that they will with Paul experience from time to time that holy tension, longing to depart and to be with you, yet longing to remain and to be useful for you. O Lord, write your word upon our hearts.

80:57 Seal it to every one of us, we plead. And may your blessing rest upon us. May your blessing continue to be the portion of this assembly. And may we look back upon the providence of these past days and bless you that out of the sorrow and the pain and the grief of death, you, by your word and gospel, have brought life.

81:28 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.